I volunteered
by coup fatal
Summary: Why Chere?” He finally asks me as if I am the one whose doing all of this.“Because,” I begin to say as I calmly pull back the trigger on the gun, “I volunteered.” Total AU.
1. Rogue's POV

**A/N: Just a little Romy drabble I made up in between stories. I hate the next chapter I wrote for **_**everyone is worth saving**_** so I am taking a mild break to regroup. This is what came out of that regroup. :D **

All I can see is a sea of blood as it coats the Earth in its deathly hue. Rivers run red and oceans are no longer vibrant shades of blue. The Earth has turned into a dark place and its all thanks to you.

I watched as my family and friends are taken, one by one, to camps and markets to be sold to the highest bidder or used like the dirt you make them out to be. And I try not to cry as I have to bury my family in mass graves along the edge or what used to be the loving home we shared together.

We try our best to save the ones we can, underground passages, our own personal underground railroad, helps us to escape to the north into Canadian territory. Your madness hasn't reached that far yet and I fear for the day of when it does.

We're hiding now, just on the outskirts of your new home. Thousands of captured mutants mill about on the periphery of your house of steel. Tonight your fellow horsemen are gathering in the west, trying to capture the rest of the resistance, the last of your family. They don't know that they were fed false information and are now half way across the country when we're really in their own backyard.

I crawl through a gap in the fence, pinning it back so that when I start to help the others escape it'll still be wide open for those small enough to crawl through it. When I enter the main holding yard I can't help but feel my heart shutter in pain as I see you standing above the masses as a God amongst insects. You don't notice me and for a moment I almost hope you do. Even if it's just for a millisecond, I would love to know if you're still in there. I want to see if you're still the man I fell madly in love with nearly three years ago.

But you don't and I don't know if I'll ever know at this point who you are. So I sigh to myself and scan the area for a familiar face to help me start the escape. However, now a day, with the world coming to a standstill, everyone looks the same. Everyone has hollow eyes and bodies that are always dirty, hunger starved and beaten.

Then my eyes locked on a familiar group. A group that we had believed for so long had been dead and buried with the rest of the poor lost souls of this godforsaken war. A group that we had believed perished during the first wave of attacks. But here they stood, still strong against the abuse, bloodshed and disassociation with the outside world. Here they stood proud and illustrious against the darkness that you created and for all I was worth I began to cry for the first time in a long time.

They are the hope in which we long thought was lost to us as we fought a losing battle of wit and strategy. The Wolverine lost during the first wave of the massacre guarded my fellow comrades we had all believed were lost. The Phoenix stands vivaciously beside him as she commands the respect of her equals. Behind them both, hidden by their stature are the rest of the younger X-Men lost to the times of war and destruction.

Iceman, Jubilee, Boom-Boom, Sunspot, Cannonball, Magma and Spike.

All of them, the ones we didn't know if they were dead or alive stood behind them with the same look of honorable disinterest.

I crept within the shadows of the holding yard as I made my way stealthily towards my friends. Hoping I wouldn't have to go far before one of them noticed me. I noticed a guard, mutant for sure. In the age of Apocalypse humans were either exterminated from American soil or they were lucky enough to escape through underground tunnels to either the North or the South. None of them remained behind the walls of this mutant prison country.

I pulled off my leather gloves, my last pair from my old life, and tucked them safely within my bomber jacket. Reaching out from behind the mutant guard I placed two carefully manicured hands across his bare face. His veins became prominent immediately as my mutation took everything from him, his life, his memories, his powers. I felt empowered as my body surged with my newest ability to make telepathic relays. I looked down at the fallen body at my feet. I had to make quick work to hide the carcass before continuing on my mission to free my teammates and to do the one thing I thought I would never have to do.

When I looked back up I wasn't that surprised to see Wolverine staring straight at me. Nothing could stop him from noticing a guard magically disappearing. Not on his watch anyways. A look of disbelief seemed to have washed over his face as he looked at me with those hard grey eyes of his. I smiled wide at him and gave him a friendly wave.

I began to saunter over to him as if we were really just playing a child's game of hide and go seek. A game that he was apparently better at than myself.

"Told ya sugar I could find you anywhere," I said to him with a genuine smile.

"Took you damn near long enough," he grunted out as he returned my smile. I knew he wasn't upset with me. I had done my very best to find him, even after everyone told me they were long since dead, I knew better. Logan wouldn't stop putting up a fight for nothing.

"Way's clear and I already opened the fence," I explained simply. My eyes never left him. I felt that if I looked at them, the children of a past life, I wouldn't be able to complete this mission.

"Good job Kid," he replied and turned to face the younger ones, "let's go home."

None of them cheered or whooped up into the air like they used to. They all just stood there and nodded their heads accordingly. They weren't children anymore, they were soldiers and it was time to finish what was started.

"We need to get the collars off," Jean informed me as she stood stoic beside Logan. Her once medium length red hair now flowed in gentle waves nearly past her waist. Her once blue-green eyes were now as stone hard as Logan's and had turned into a murky grey color.

"No problem," I replied cheerfully as I used the super strength I had gained during the first months of battle to crush the key pad on their necks. And it seemed, as the collars fell away, that each of them gained a spirit in them that had long since been lost.

"Get the other's out," I said to them with a sad expression. My mission is far from over and freeing them wasn't even on the agenda.

"Sorry kid I ain't leaving you behind neither," Logan said to me as he helped Jean organize the mutants so it didn't look like we were breaking out in masses. If anything like that happened we wouldn't make it to the county line or another country for that matter.

"Cyclopes and Gamma Team are waiting just about three clicks from here. If you can get everyone to run as fast as they can in opposite directions and have them rendezvous there then we can get these people out of this godforsaken place for good," I said with such heart and heat I hadn't even realized I was clenching my fists. "My objective is not complete Wolverine and I do not plan on coming home."

"I won't let you kid," Logan sternly replied to my obvious display of disobedience, "I just got you back."

"Sorry Logan, but it's either me or everyone else in this place," I explained to him without a hint of regret.

I remembered the moment Scott had explained this mission to us. This was the mission that would either break or make us. He explained it simply enough, but it seemed like all things simple it just wasn't meant to be.

"You volunteered for this didn't you?" Logan asked me accusingly. Of course I had. I had volunteered for this mission, the mission that would possibly cost me my life or my sanity. It was the only way out us. It was the only way we could be happy again.

"Yes."

"I won't let you," he said to me again with all the fatherly adoration I had always loved him for.

"You don't have a choice," I said despondently. I didn't want to cry not while I had to do what needed to be done tonight.

"We always have a choice Marie," he says my name and for a moment I hadn't even recognized it. No one has said my name, not since you anyways.

"You're right Logan," I say quietly, just above a whisper, "and this is my choice."

"There' gotta be another way kid."

"There isn't Logan, this is it. This is the last dance of the night, the end of the show."

"Then kill me," he says to me and I look down at him in pure shock and then in anger.

"No."

"You're the only one who can, the only one who can make it all end for me," he explains to me in desperation, that only tells me he's been thinking about it, the end.

"I won't kill the only part of my heart that's worth fighting for," I explain to him.

It's true; I had given you everything, almost my entire heart. But you knew as did everyone else, that a small part of it would always lie with Logan. And when you left us, left us to die, you took my heart with you and all the tiny broken pieces too, all except the small portion I had given to Logan. The portion that would forever keep me grounded to this Earth.

"Kid you're all I've got left to fight for," he says to me desperately trying to make me understand.

"No Logan," I say with a gentle smile as I watch people slowly start to evacuate the building, "I am not anymore."

He looks behind me at the children running underneath the fencing. Jean's eyes meeting his and I wonder if maybe something happened during their two years here together or maybe it's just a friendship stronger than what Logan and I will ever have. But it doesn't matter now. It's too late, I already volunteered.

"It's time for me to go," I tell him as he removes his eyes off of his pack, the children that he helped keep safe for so many years.

"I will always love and remember you Marie," he tells me and I smile knowingly up at him.

"I will love you forever Logan," I answer back as I take him into a tight hug.

When we part and look into each other's eyes for one last time and I know in that moment I am doing the right thing. I will save them, its only option we have left.

I don't turn to look back at what I believe will be the future for this world; I don't turn back as I move forward towards my destiny. Taking a huge leap into the air, using the powers I had absorbed so long ago with the death of one of the first forsworn, I made the climb up to where I had seen you last.

_Jean_ I called telepathically out.

_Yes._

_Tell Scott-_

_I will_ she said before I could finish and I knew she would.

After what we assumed was Jean's death, the capture of Logan and your betrayal, Scott and I for awhile could only find a moments comfort in each other's company. And in that moment we didn't care that our loved ones were gone and all that was left for us was this war and the basic need of survival. In that moment we were happy again. And when I took this mission, this mission to save that little piece of happiness, I knew our moments together were over. Scott had tried to convince me otherwise, saying that I was all that was left to keep him going in this bleak world. But I knew better, just like I knew with Logan, men like them don't just need me, they need a purpose and this war was more than enough to cover that.

I landed on the balcony with agile ease from years of practice. The guards had already started to assemble on the ground. I looked down at my wrist communicator. It took them fifteen minutes to figure out what was going on and we still had another ten minutes before they assembled and started to recapture the escaped mutants. That was plenty of time.

When I entered the bedroom I wasn't surprised to see him waiting for me. I guess after so many years of war and pestilence things like that really don't surprise anyone anymore.

"Hello," I say with a calm and cool voice.

"Chere," he says as if we're back at the institute. It's like a slap in the face and I can't give him the satisfaction of responding to it like any woman scorned should.

"It's been a long time Remy," I say with sad, hurt filled eyes. I am hoping that maybe before this all begins I can see a little bit of the man that I miss with every inch of my stolen heart.

"Far too long Chere," he replied as if this is all just another business meeting. He's leaning up against the side one of the bedroom walls. His lean arms are crossed over his torso and a cigarette that I know isn't lit is being shuffled through his nimble fingers.

"Why are you here?" He asks me, his red on black eyes boring into my green ones. I won't look away, I want him to see. I want him to see what he's let go, see what he's missing.

"I came to give you something back. I thought you might need it today," I say solemnly.

"Qui?" He asks me in surprise.

I don't think he was expecting me to say something like that. I reached into my bomber jacket, the one he gave me so long ago. I feel the gloves first before pulling it out. The card is frayed along the edges and the once brilliant white now tea stained.

"Here," I say holding it out. It's the Queen of Hearts, his number one girl.

He doesn't say anything and doesn't act as if to move. He just stares at me and the card as if he's finally realizing something. As if for the first time in what feels like forever he remembers what we had and I see that man I will always love.

"I love you," I say as I move and place the card on one of the various tables in the room. And when I look down at the card and trace the outline of the words written across the front of it, I let a tear slip away.

_You stole this thief's heart right from under his nose_.

The silly phrase had caused me at the time to laugh until I cried, but that was so long ago and the words seemed to burn the tips of my fingers as I retraced over them again.

"But I know you don't love me anymore and I know now that I was never enough, I never will be," I pause to take a shaky breath before continuing, "and I am sorry I couldn't be whatever it was you needed me to be."

He doesn't respond as I step away from the card and pull out the laser gun that's hidden underneath my bomber jacket. I look down at my watch just for a fraction of a second. Strom's Alpha Team is already in battle now; she and about forty X-Men are taking out the other tree horsemen as we speak.

"Why Chere?" He finally asks me as if I am the one whose doing all of this.

"Because," I begin to say as I calmly pull back the trigger on the gun, "I volunteered."


	2. Gambit's POV

**A/N: Well I had intended for this to only be a one shot. But having a small perspective from Remy's point of view is always a nice ending to things.**

I loved her.

Her passionate nature, her supple complexion, her talented character were just a few of the reasons why I loved her.

But when she turned to look at me, her eyes no longer sparkled like emerald green jewels. They had become dense and water logged from years of war and pestilence. Her skin seemed so tight and ashen colored as it stretched across her once creamy, soft white features. And there no longer lingered a sense of heat that always seemed to resonate throughout her entire being.

This was not the Marie I will always love; this was Rogue, a woman with no hope for the future. She knew when she came here what would happen. She knew that the moment she walked through my bedroom window what would and wouldn't be again.

"Hello," she said to me with such cool confidence I felt young and foolish all over again.

"Chere," I replied to her. I really didn't know what else to say. So like the bastard I am I immediately fell back on what felt natural to me. But when that simple word left my imprudent lips I could see that it had pulled at the broken pieces of her heart, the small fragments that I had left behind.

"It's been a long time Remy," she said to me with hurt filled eyes and all I wanted to do was walk across the small distance that was between us and wrap my arms around her and whisper to her like I used too.

"Far too long Chere," I reply coolly, hoping she won't see what her being here really means to me. She doesn't know why I did the things that I did. She doesn't know why I turned sides so easily. But if she knew the truth she would hate herself more than she would ever hate me.

"Why are you here?" I ask her already knowing the answer but I just can't help but stare into her beautiful green eyes and wish life wasn't nearly as cruel as it is. And to tell you the truth I really just wanted to see if she is still the woman I left to save all those years ago.

"I came to give you something back. I thought you might need it today," she says solemnly to me and I now know what she means about today. She's here to complete a mission and if I know my Chere, she doesn't leave until the jobs done.

"Qui?" I ask her in surprise. I have no idea on what she could possibly give me. She's given me enough to last three life times I'm sure.

"Here," she says holding it out. I know immediately what it is. It's the queen of hearts card, my number one girl. I can see the frayed edges and tea stained color even in the dark of this room, this prison I call my own.

I don't move and I can't seem to find the words that will convey to her the pain that all of this is causing me. All I can do is just stare at her and that card as she traces the lines of the fading words on it.

"I love you," she says to me and I am surprised once again. It's not past tense or a promise of the future. She loves me, right now in this moment, just like I will always love her.

She continues to trace the words on the card and as she does it, it burns a whole right through my heart. The heart I stole from her to replace the black emptiness that once held mine.

_You stole this thief's heart right from under his nose._

I can still remember the day I gave it to her. That was my gesture of undying love for her. I remember she had laughed until she cried. I remember I felt, for the first time, scared of a woman. I was scared that I had indeed fallen madly in love with her and that those words weren't simply just words.

"But I know you don't love me anymore," she continued interrupting my silent musing, "and I know now that I was never enough, I never will be," she paused before continuing on a shaky breath, "and I am sorry I couldn't be whatever it was that you needed me to be."

_No_

I thought to myself.

She was more than enough and all I wanted to do was run to her and scream at her and tell her how truly wrong she is. She was more than enough for me; she was exactly what I needed, what I needed now and forever. All I wanted to do was tell her that I loved her, now and forever.

She steps away from the card that she carefully laid on one of the many tables in the room and pulls out a laser gun from underneath the bomber jacket I got her the last Christmas we spent together. Her eyes flicker to her watch and I realize she's on a schedule. She doesn't know it, but I already knew about her little plot to help the mutants here escape. It's why I never sounded the alarm when I saw her talking to Logan down in the holding yard. She doesn't know that I know Storm's team is in California killing the other three horsemen. I didn't warn them either that their informant lied. Apparently my reputation and a large amount of European money can buy even Apocalypses information.

"Why Chere?" I ask her with plain curiosity and pain filled eyes. But I know why she's here deep down, I knew the moment she entered the room.

"Because," she says before charging up the laser gun, "I volunteered."

And then the trigger is being pulled and for just a moment all I see is her green eyes as I stare her straight in the face. I don't even try to move out of the way, I just sit there and take it. Apocalypse won't ever let me go. I am too important. This is the only way out for me, the only way out for her as well.

I felt the laser hit my chest long before I actually felt it. It ripped through my body like a knife cutting butter on a hot day. Simple, easy and to the point.

I fall to my knees, unable to fight for the life I never wanted in the first place. She cocks the gun again ready for another shot, a shot to kill. But I don't fight, I don't even move as she approaches me. I don't have to look at her to know that her hand is steady on the trigger.

"Get up," she says in a not so calm voice, it's shaky and I know she's doing her best to not cry.

"Get up," she says again in earnest. But I can't give her what she wants. I won't be the one to put her out of her misery. I won't ruin the only good thing that I ever had in this godforsaken world or life for that matter. I won't.

"No," I say in a low voice.

"What?" She asks confused, her hand slacking on the gun.

"Remy won't fight ya Chere, not over dis, I deserve this," I say to her switching from my normal third person speech to first. There isn't any more time for games. This is the end, the last act of the show.

"You left me to become a horseman!" She yells and I know I deserve every word I know she's about to say, "They killed The Professor, Pyro, Avalanche, and even Jamie Maddox and so many more people. You left me to help kill our friends and family. Your own father and brother died to help us stop you!"

She screamed the last part out and I felt my heart falter a little. I hadn't known about their deaths. I had always believed that they got out; they were probably somewhere in Europe. I never believed for a moment that they could have possibly been killed by the hand of Apocalypse.

"I didn't know," I say weakly almost so low I barely heard myself. I can feel the stickiness of my own blood as it trickles through the open wound and under my clothes.

"Why did you do it Remy, why?" She asks me and I could only think of one answer to give her before my world went dark from the loss of blood.

"Because," I say with a pause, "I volunteered."

**A/N: Really did you think I would let Remy end up being the bad guy? Of course not! He's just too awesome to be innately evil. It just goes against everything I believe in. LOL. But I hoped you liked it. **

**This is a portion that I removed from the end of the last segment that I thought still needed be added. **

_I think about what I had told to Logan when he first arrived here and we were having one of our card nights. Do I tell her the truth and allow her to spend the rest of her life in misery over what she's about to do? Or do I allow her to believe the biggest lie I ever told? And before I allowed the blood loss too finally over take me I spoke to her in a loud stern voice. _

"_Because," I say with a pause, "I volunteered." _


	3. Logan's POV

**A/N: I know I should really be starting my next chapter in Everyone's worth Saving, but I really like this story and this chapter has been bugging me for days now. So I had to put it up. I hope you like it. **

The war seemed to rage all around us. A continuation of what we had always believed would never occur, at least not in our life time. But here, behind these metal walls of steel, it was as if the war was happening to someone else. Everything and everyone moved with a fluidity that was almost mechanical in its movements. Nothing seemed to faze anyone here. Not death, not war, not even famine or pestilence could disturb the people that milled about this tomb, like ants in a glass case.

"You're up," I said to the man that sat across from me as I swallowed down some of the last of the whiskey that remained in this country.

"Now don't go rushing Gambit mon ami it'll ruin da affect." The man, Gambit now turned horseman, Death, said to me with a cigarette hanging out of the left side of his mouth.

"Sure Gumbo go ahead, make a show, your good at that," I say to him not looking up into his devil like eyes.

The year I've been here hasn't changed the fact that I still hate the bastard. Not for becoming a horseman and being a traitor to the American people. No, I hate him for what he's doing to Rogue. He's never told me why he traded sides nor why he's got Bobby, Jubilee and I held up in his personal wing of the building instead of being held down in the holding yards like everyone else. But then again I never asked and neither have the others. I've heard rumors of what goes on down there, down in the holding yards, and come hell or high water will I let Bobby and Jubilee experience any of that.

"Three of a kind, ace high," Gambit says with a flourish as he lays down his hand. I swear the man cheats.

"Damn," I mutter as I toss my own hand down on the table and light another cigar.

"Ya would dink dat ya would get better at playin' cards Wolverine seein' as how dats all we be doin' now-a-days," he says as he artfully shuffles the cards with practiced ease.

"Rumor has it that they're bringing in a new shipment today," I say as I take my cards, they're nothing special two low spades and a queen and jack of diamonds.

He looks at me over his hand, his eyes peering at me from behind his sunglasses. He knows exactly what I am talking about.

"How is it dat ya know so much Wolverine? Cause Remy swear sometimes ya know more dan him and he be about as high as ya can get in dis circus," he says to me and I just smile at him.

"You've got your secrets and I've got mine and the moment you start telling me your secrets, I'll start telling you mine. So is that shipment coming today or what?"

"Oui, it be here in about an hour or so. Why are ya so curious Wolverine? Expectin' someone special?" He asks me and I almost want to gut him.

"Sorry if I want to see if the next load of husks you bring in here has one of my friends on it," I grunt out.

"If it does everyone here knows dat day are supposed to be brought up here. Ya even know dat," he says to me as he takes a swig from his own whiskey glass.

"Still," I say setting my cards down. It's getting almost too hard to do this. To live like a lap dog while my friends and family are out there fighting the good fight.

"Who ya waitin' for mon ami?" He asks me as I lean back in my chair, the card game clearly forgotten.

"The same person you are."

He doesn't say anything for a heart beats worth as he sets his cards down onto the table to join mine. His eyes won't even look up from the half empty glass in front of him as he answers me.

"She won't becomin' here," he says with a force I hadn't seen in him in awhile, "she's too stubborn to get caught."

We sit again in comfortable silence for what feels like an eternity this time. Both of us are sipping on our whiskeys or smoking. Neither of us wanting to say what Rogue being here would mean to all of us. A beginning to an end I suppose. But it's a thought I would rather not think about.

"So," I begin to say not really sure of where to start off but it's a question that really needs answering, "Why did you do it anyways?"

"Do what?" He asks tapping the end of his cigarette on to the ashtray that sits between us.

"Become a horseman, keep all the X-Men locked up here, break her heart," I say the last one more out of spite than anything else. Gotta keep my kicks in before something happens and it's too late. But then again it's too late for anything now.

"Why do you care?" He asks not really looking at me but at his gloved hands.

He never takes them off, those ratter looking gloves, they're the same pair Rogue got him two or three Christmas' ago. And for a moment, as I stare at those gloves, I wonder if I am really just fooling myself in thinking that there is something bigger going on here or this whole mess that were in is all about some girl. But then again this is Rogue we're talking about here and by no means is she _just some girl._

"Don't really. But as I see it we're both going to die one way or another in this place so whatever it is, the reasons why you did the things you did, don't really mean that much if you know what I mean," I say to him with a shrug and another long drag from my cigar as I pretend to not notice him staring at a pair of gloves that mean more than what he's letting on.

"What you still think I volunteered for this shit?" He asks me looking all around us with an almost hysterical look on his face.

"No," I say but know for a moment way back when I did. But not now, not when he looks the way he does, there's no mistaking it now. He didn't do any of this freely.

"Don't lie Logan," he says my name for the first time in a year. I realize then that his accent is all but gone. He no longer speaks in his famous third person speech either.

"I did, but not anymore."

He sighs and doesn't say anything for a long while. The silence seems to creep up on us like an old friend as we sit here in his room. I shift almost uncomfortably in my metal chair as I wait for him to tell me why he left us, left her.

"It was summer," he begins to say; "we had just gotten back from that vacation we all took to that private island in the Bahamas for mutants. Cyclopes had just asked Jean to marry him and Jubilee had gotten accepted in to college. We were all surprised by that."

I smile slightly at the memory. Who would have thought yellow would get into college? Or that Jean would say yes to Scott _Fucking_ Summers.

"After we had gotten back and decided to play mutant football in the back I had gone back inside to get more water remember?" He says and I remember that day clearly. It was our last good day together, before this whole world went to shit. Rogue had thought it would be oh so hilarious to dump our entire cooler of water on top of me when I had tackled her to the ground and thus gotten a touchdown.

"The threat of Apocalypse had been on our minds before we even left for that trip. Rumors were flying around the underground that he was going to rise again and this time Rogue wouldn't be able to stop him," he pauses before continuing, "When I was on my way back from the mansion I noticed something on the outskirts of the property. I thought it was a deer or something. So I went over the edge where the woods meet the lawn."

I can make the scene out perfectly. I can remember finding the water about an hour or so later warming on the porch. Gambit hadn't returned to the game. He hadn't even returned to the mansion.

"I went out to the woods and instead of a deer I found Sinister waiting for me. You know about my relationship with the man. He helped me control my mutation when no one else could. But I had paid my debt to him in full. I couldn't figure out why he would be back barking up my door again.

"He tells me Apocalypse has risen and is coming for us. He'll be at our gates before night fall and he'll kill us all. He told me that there was no way to stop him this time that he had gained immunity to Rogue's mutation. He said that he would make her kill me; make her absorb every last memory from my body until I consumed her.

"I would have laughed at him if he had been anybody but Sinister. Because we both know that Sinister doesn't make any jokes. He told me that if I became a horseman the X-Men would be spared at all costs. They wouldn't hunt them, they wouldn't kill them if they were caught, and they would be taken into my custody the moment they were found. We would all live to see another day."

He stops and gives a shaky breath and I can't do or say anything to him but stare at him. I hadn't realized the depth of the situation.

"You could have told us," I say to him through clenched teeth.

"And you would have talked me out of it and you, Bobby and Jubilee would already be dead or worse," he retorts as he takes a long drink from his whiskey glass. He's right and I know it. But I hate to admit it. "None of you were here in the beginning when the slaughters began, when they tested you relentlessly seeing if you could become a solider for Apocalypses army. It made me realize how right Sinister was. I couldn't ever back out of this deal. Never trade sides again, because the fate you all would be sharing was worse than my abandonment, more than my betrayal."

"She would barely talk to anyone," I confess to him, thinking he should know something's about her even if those things were a year old.

"She does that when she's upset," he says looking out at nothing, yet everything all at once.

"She killed that first War Horseman you know. Drained her dry like Sinister said he would make her do to you," I continue to confess to the kid. I could see Gambit's hands curl into them, his nails digging into the leather of his gloves.

"She went a little insane there for awhile, but Jean was able to get her somewhat under control. Her accent changes sometimes from Southern Mississippi to Northern Massachusetts, so does her eyes from green to blue," I sigh as I talk about her, the only person in this world I claim as family.

"They never told me how Danvers died," Gambit says not looking up at me. His forearms I can tell are coiled under his trench coat.

"Yeah, Rogue's got a nasty left hook now," I say with a chuckle remembering the first time she slugged me. But my laugh seems to die on death ears because Gambit isn't looking at me, or paying any attention to me. He's thinking about her and the life they had once shared together.

"She doesn't hate you," I finally confess to him as I chew on the end of my cigar.

"I bet," he says unbelieving.

"I think she still even loves you a little."

Gambit doesn't say anything to that. He just sits there trying from what I can tell to not lose it on me. The man might be a lot of things, that's for sure, but a weak man he wasn't. And in this moment as he leans his head down away from me, not looking me in the eye as I remind him of the life he left behind, I am strangely proud of him. I am proud that he placed himself in the line of fire, knowing he would be hated for his actions, to save us. If only to save us long enough to make a difference.

It makes me wonder what else in this world I had gotten wrong.


	4. Scott's POV

The small room is crowded with the last of the remaining X-Men standing in it. Tonight I have to ask them to do the unthinkable. I have to ask them to risk it all for the safety and security of all of our futures.

Storm is standing strong and proud to my right. Her team was informed of tonight's discussion only a few moments ago. None of them I can see are taking it very well.

"Storm and I have come to a finale resolution to our problem," I state as everyone seems to stare at me.

"This is what we both assume will be our last act as your commanding officers. Both of us have decided that this world we live in needs to end. We don't expect any of you to join us unless it is under your own free will. We could never ask you to do something this dangerous without your consistent." I stop and let my words fall onto them as I take a breath and continue.

"Tomorrow we will be conducting a double attack on all four of the horsemen. We will have most of our team's located in California were we have planned a surprised attack on War, Famine and Pestilence. We have already gone ahead and let information leak that Gold Team will be there trying to break into one of their main supply carriers. However, they have no idea that there will be a whole lot more than just Gold Team." I stop and let Storm pick up on her plans for California. It will be her team that will be leading that mission.

"I've sent a messenger to Red and Blue team in Michigan and in Texas they will be meeting us there. We are hoping we will be able to overcome The Horsemen by sheer force and numbers."

I quit paying attention to Storm at that point and locked eyes with familiar green ones across the room. She's the only woman in this place that I trust implicitly besides my co-commander Storm. She's the only person who will keep me grounded when the world gets to be too much and when I look at her I can't see anything of the girl she used to be. All I see now is the woman she is and will become and it pulls the strings at my heart and I wonder in this moment why I never saw it before. I wonder why I never saw her for what she really is to me.

"Then hopefully we should have the ultimate surprise when we finally face Apocalypse," Storm says as I tuned back into the conversation at hand.

"That leads us to our current situation," I say breaking my momentary connection with her. Because I know what I am about to say is going to break her already shattered heart just that much more.

"As Storm's Silver Team leads the rampage on the West Coast with Blue and Red Teams, Gold Team along with X-Factor, who will be sneaking back into the country tonight, will engage Death at his home in New York. Sources have it that they have been keeping many captured mutants there that are more than willing to help our cause," I stop and look straight at her as I say the next part. "We of course can't face off against Death and his entire army with the limited numbers we will have. So we will need someone who can sneak into the compound and distract Death long enough for us to help the rest of the mutants escape."

"So in other words someone's going to have to die," Cannonball asked from his corner of the room. I sighed as the room began to murmur at what I was asking.

"Yes," I said slowly, yet firmly as I continued to watch her. I could see her green eyes flash and turn slightly blue as I said that word.

"So what?" Domino began, "you want someone to volunteer to die?"

"Yes," I say again, not losing my focus on her. Her face seemed to contort in what I assumed was an internal conversation with her self.

"That has to be the most insane thing that has ever come out of your mouth Cyclopes," Lorna Dane said to me in disbelief. But I ignored her and the others as I continued to look onto her.

"Scott," Storm called softly out to me breaking me from my trance, "I'll…"

But before she could finish a voice broke clear through the murmuring voices and my heart seemed to stop with her words.

"I'll do it," she said so clear I had nearly stopped breathing. I turned to look at her and her face was set in a look that spoke volumes to me. It was her last chance to settle the score. He broke her heart and ruined her life, so she break his neck and kill him in return.

"No," I say clear as day from the other side of the room. The voices in the room had become silent as that word slipped through my mouth.

"I am doing it with or without your consent Scott. I am the only logical choice. I can get in undetected and even open the fencing just as easily. You know I will be able to gain an audience with him even if I get caught," she tells me and I know she's right. She is the most logical choice. But my heart is screaming at me to stop her, to refuse her from going. Even if that means I have to lock her up myself.

"We need you Rogue, you're a very valuable asset to this team and we can not afford to lose you this early in the game," I say rationally back to her.

"No Scott, you need me, not the team. I am the only one capable of pulling this off and maybe even living. Anyone else would get killed even before they made it past the fencing," she says and I can't say anything to that. She's right and I know it, I just can't accept it.

"It's the only way," she says to me from across the room we now share together alone. Everyone seems to just fade into the background.

"There has to be another way," I argued back to her moving across the room towards her.

"But there isn't," she says and I just can't believe it, I won't.

"I won't lose you, not you too," I plead to her knowing deep down that it is useless. She'll go, there's no way of stopping her once her minds set.

"I don't want you to ever have to lose someone else again," she tells me as she walks up close to me her gloved hands lay flatly on my chest. "I want you to sleep at night and know that tomorrow will be just as good as it was the day before."

"You silly girl," I tell her as I wrap my arms around her not caring about the watching eyes, "I always worry, even on the good days."

"Maybe you won't, not when this is all over," she whispers to me and I just cling to her tighter. I never knew I could have someone as spectacular as her in my life.

"Stay," I beg to her as I tighten my grip on her. I don't care if everyone here has to listen to me beg for her to stay. I don't care to show the world that she's my weakness, she's my strength.

"I can't," she chokes out as I feel the tears through my shirt.

"Why not?" I whine out to her in desperation.

"Because," she says with a pause, "I volunteered."

I feel my whole world crashing down around me as she leans up and places a gentle kiss on my cheek. I can't even feel the pull of her mutation as it lingers a bit too long. As she pulls away I feel my world slipping through my fingers and out into a world I fear and hate. She smiles at me as she backs away to prepare for tomorrow when her ruined life will finally be over and her new one will begin. But I can't help but wonder when my own ruined life will be over and if I will ever see her on the other side.

"I love you," I whisper to her from across the room. The crowd is now quite as they watch us fall apart, as we fall away from each other. She stops just short of the door leading out of the room where our own world fell apart.

"I know," she tells me and walks away never turning back for one last look. And all I can think about is how she volunteered for this, for him.


	5. Storm's POV

The wind from the ocean caressed my skin like an old friend as I stood stoic on the hillside. The screams and cries of battle seemed to mask the true beauty of California's once historic coast line. But still being so connected to my Mother Earth I knew she was even more so under the pressure of the world's inhabitants.

"Polaris is down and we are losing strength," Betsy Braddock reports to me in a heavy breath as she kneels, exhausted at my feet.

"Only two more left and we still haven't even sent out the second assault," I replied to her not taking my eyes off the deep blue of the ocean. It has been so long since I've seen something so true, so natural that I couldn't take my eyes off it.

"Do you want me to send them out now?" Betsy asks as she raises her self to stand next to me as an equal.

"No not yet. Mystique will send them out when she is ready. She has no better timing than any other mutant I know," I reply coolly to her as I flick my eyes away from the calming sensation that the ocean provides me and gaze across the sand dunes that have, unfortunately, become our battlefield.

"Do you trust her still? Even after her scene with Cyclopes and Rogue," Braddock asks as she too looks across the waste land we had created for ourselves.

"A Mother's greatest regret in life is watching her own children make the same mistakes she has made. But for Raven hers was never telling Rogue how much she truly loved her and that in the end she didn't even have the will power to stop her from making a mistake she her self had made many times before," I explain to her as I cross my arms over my chest. I can see that Betsy's Blue Team and half of my Gold Team are going for Gazer or better known now as War, next.

"Do you ever miss it?" Psylocke asks as I see that Mystique has finally released her Red Team into the fray and we seem to have finally even the odds out even better than before.

"Miss what?" I question back dragging my eyes away from the battlefield to her.

"The life we once had," she sighs out never once looking at me but at the people below her. I can see just barely the flicker of white wings as they flutter in the distance, her own angel in the darkness, her Warren, fighting for their love, their lives.

"Everyday," I whisper out as if at any moment someone or something will come by and snatch my very little bit of hope away.

"Do you think we'll ever get even a moment of that back?" She continues to question and I respond to her as truthfully as I can to her.

"I pray that we do, but I know we never will."

"Do you think Rogue will make it?" Elizabeth asks and I feel my heart reach out to the girl. Elizabeth and Rogue have gotten so close over the years. Rogue being the younger woman's mentor for most of this war and even a little before that.

"No," I state firmly before continuing, "she won't want to survive losing him completely."

We're silent again for what feels like the briefest of moments before Elizabeth's normal curiosity is peaked again.

"She really loved him didn't she?" She asks me in a very child like kind of way and in that moment I realize how very young Elizabeth Braddock really is. She's barely twenty and leader for a team of resistance mutants who don't even know if they'll eat tomorrow or if they'll survive the night. She's too young to have to face a world so full of hate and destruction, to young for any of this.

"I think she still does," I say with a pause before continuing, "That is why she took the mission in the first place, I think. So that she could be the last one to see him, to be the one to tell him all her pains and all her love. You see Gambit and Rogue were lovers the moment they laid eyes on one another. Star crossed even before the war had even been thought of," I tell her as the memory of them together lifts a smile from my normally impassive features. So long ago was it that love seemed to be the only thing that stood in people's way.

"Gambit was always trying to win her affections even when she thought she was doomed to live a life of solitude. He was always there to give her a nudge in the right direction when she felt like nothing could go right. And she was always there to keep him grounded when his head got to high up in the clouds," I tell her as I almost start to giggle at the memories we all shared with them back at Xavier's Mansion.

"I think he loves her too," a voice so hard from years of abuse says behind me and I turn at its familiarity.

"Still, do you think?" I ask as I face my enemy turned comrade.

"I think he did it all for her. I think he thought if she really knew what he was up too she would be proud that he finally did something worthwhile in his life," Mystique confessed to me as she moves to stand on the other side of me.

Her once short hair is long now and the cool ocean breeze whips it madly about her blue skinned body as she stares desperately out into the battlefield. Her last surviving and youngest child is fighting in the throngs of the mutant resistance forces below. The last of her family fighting for what we all believe in.

"That's a lot to suggest about Death Mystique," Psylocke hisses out and I almost want to agree with her. But I know better, better than anyone here at least. Gambit loved her, he really and truly did.

"Every animal, demon or otherwise has a soul at one time or another Elizabeth. It's when the world turns it's back on it that it losses it to the dark," Raven snaps back her yellow eyes burning bright against her indigo skin as she looks away from her combating child to Betsy.

"Like you?" Psylocke counters and I brace myself for the fight that I know is about to start. But Raven surprises both of us as she sighs in what I assume is defeat, she has nothing left to fight for after this. She knows deep down Rogue won't survive killing Gambit and I figure she doesn't really believe Kurt will survive this battle, let alone the rest of the war.

"Yes just like me," she whispers out and I feel my heart reach out towards the woman I had befriended over these few hard years.

"Gazer's down," Mystique comments ignoring both of us as she watches the battle intently as it rages down below. I can see her eyes searching the crowds for her son trying to catch the smallest of glimpses of him to reassure her of his health.

"One to go," Betsy murmurs out as we watch captivated by the debacle going on down below.

We are silent as we gaze at what is left of the three teams as they move from one horseman to the last. Sunfire doesn't have a chance as he battles helplessly against our combined forces. The crackles of our radios scare us out of our resolve and we all switch our attentions from the scene below to the rushed voice of Scott Summers.

"Storm report," Scott's voice yells at us over the poorly connected line. I pick my radio up and hesitate for only a moment before responding.

"Two down only one firefly left to go," I respond somewhat cryptically into the radio.

"Excellent," he calls back to us and I take a breath of air as I ask the question we've all been waiting for answer too.

"What of the Rogue?" I ask.

"Mission completed," he says to us just as cryptically back. I glance at Mystique who seems more than on edge as she clutches her own radio in a grip worth dieing over.

"Her status," I ask hoping for the best and feeling for the worst.

"It is unknown at this time. We did however manage to regain members Wolverine, Phoenix, Iceman, Jubilee, Spike, Boom-Boom, Sunspot, Cannonball and Magma."

We all gasp in surprise. Our fallen members we had once cried and wept over were now once again within our ranks. I nearly dropped my radio at the mention of my nephew's name.

"We are moving into phase two of the operation," Cyclopes voice clicked across the radio and I knew that was the end of our conversation.

We're all looking down at my radio in shock, disappointing surprise. We are all more than elated about the recovery of our lost members, yet as the news of what Scott have reported to us about Rogue leaves an empty chasm in our chests. Was the life of one of our dearest friends worth that of nine others?

We hoped to never have that question answered.

I turned then to look into the face of a Mother who has possibly lost one of her children to fates cruel hand. Her face is set in eternal stone as she looks disbelievingly at the radio I still clutched tightly in my hand.

"Raven," I call out to her as calmly and quietly as I can, hoping to not frighten her and cause her to do something rash.

"We have a war to win," she says in a dead voice as she moves away from us and I can feel her heart breaking even from the distance we share.

Neither Elizabeth nor I say anything as we stand to move next to Raven. She's right, we do have a war to win and we've seen many of our friends and family numerous times before. This time shouldn't have been any different than the rest. But then somewhere in the back of my mind a whisper of words float across my psyche that makes me suddenly realize that it is different, that this time will always be remembered when other's won't.

She volunteered for this and nothing we could say or do could change that.


	6. Jean's POV

**A/N: Just so we are clear this POV is Jean's and I am not a Jean Grey fan in anyway shape or form and doing this chapter goes against my very nature. But I think her perspective will be very valued in the continuation of this particular story. So please, again, I implore you to stay with me on this one. **

I've fallen from grace and I refuse to get back up. The perfection in which that has normally surrounded my life faded on that day two years ago when I was captured and brought to the Eastern Castle of Mutant Superiority. My life's ambitions and goals seemed to shatter with every foot step I took as I entered that haunted dwelling.

But now as I look at it from a distance I feel a shudder against my heart. For two years I was safe from death and starvation. For two years I was able to be the person I always wanted to be. I was loved by a man I myself had always wanted to be loved by. I was wild and carefree when in the past I was conservative and logical. And I want to go back to the comfort it provided for me.

We've only been back on the side of the resistance for a few hours and I can feel yet another life I had built for myself falling down all around me. Scott hasn't spoken to me since he discovered Logan and mines love affair but as I look over the horizon of the burning sun set I don't particularly care.

"We're sending Jubilee out for the recon mission," Scott whispers to me from across the private room he has set up for me and inadvertently for Logan as well.

"Do you think that wise to send her back out so soon?" I ask him not turning to face him. I am momentarily captured by the sun's warm hues of burnt umber, magenta and rosy pinks.

"She requested to go," he replies not daring to cross the distance between us. I don't blame him, we are worlds apart and the distance is almost too great to transgress.

"It seems that a lot of people seem to be volunteering for individual missions lately," I snap back. I won't believe he was foolish enough to allow Rogue to go and kill the only man she will ever love. A woman he himself cared for more than what I believed was necessary.

"Yes," he replies, "X-Women have this thing apparently about loyalty towards the people who own their hearts."

I can feel the double meaning and hurt behind every word he says. But again I refuse to care. I was captured, was gone for two years and needed the companionship of a fellow friend. Logan just happened to be the man that was waiting at my side. Just like Rogue was the woman waiting at his.

"Not just their hearts," I say with a sigh allowing my previous thoughts to drift slightly away from me.

"Do you hate me?" He asks just after a brief moment of silence. I have to think about that.

_Do I hate him for believing me dead and never coming to find me? Do I hate him for falling in love with another woman? Do I hate him for allowing that said woman to go off and get herself killed? Do I hate him for not stopping her when he had the chance? Do I hate him for killing the man who saved all of our lives?_

No. I don't.

"No I can't hate you Scott," I finally tell him as I slowly turn to face him.

"But?"

"But I am…," I stop and reassess my answer. Nothing good comes from hurried words and quick looks, "I am upset over the whole situation. We don't have many members left and inadvertently killing off one of those said members at a chance at killing a man whose place will be filled shortly after his death is very illogical," I respond.

"Everything is very illogical right now Jean," he says like it's venom on his tongue. I can't help but smile.

"Yes," I begin to say, "Who would have thought that you and Rogue would have become lovers, especially, with her strange attachment to Gambit."

I say in spite of what I now consider my new demeanor. We can't all change over night you know.

"And who Jean might I ask would have thought that Logan and you would ever make a good match," He says defiantly and I can feel my smile broaden.

"No one," I reply.

"Jubilee leaves in two hours. Make sure she's ready," He commands me and I almost want to laugh.

"She's ready Scott she doesn't need anyone's help, especially not mine. Gambit taught her well during her captivity," I say drawing out my words as I close the distance between us. Nevertheless as I shorten the distance I suddenly realize that we are not just merely worlds apart but galaxies.

"Gambit is a traitor to his kind."

"No Scott," I say bringing myself as close to him as I dared, "we are."

"What do you mean?" He asks me as he backs away, the contact almost too unresisting.

"We've betrayed ourselves, not just our people. We've allowed our mission for peace on Earth to over ride our love for one another. We place other people's lives ahead of our own. You killed Rogue and Gambit to save the rest of humanity. I wonder what would have happened if instead of killing them we had just simply loved them, like Gambit loved Rogue and like I love Logan. Do you think then we would have had peace on Earth like Xavier preached? Love all humans, mutants and other's alike?" I ask as a buildup of angry tears threatens to overtake my strong resolve.

"It's never that simple Jean," he responds and I get my answer. I am too tired to fight, too tired to care. I turn to leave; tired of this round about conversation we seem to keep having with one another. However before I reach the door leading out of my room I stop short. Turning to Scott I give him my answer to my own questions.

"Actually Scott, it is."

With that I leave him standing in mine and Logan's room and head off towards where I can feel Jubilee waiting. The girl has a lot more on her mind than simple lover's quarrels and dead dreams.


	7. Jubilee's POV

**A/N: Thank you all so much for all of your reviews. This is the finale chapter to this supposed one-shot that I have been doing. This finale piece will be in Jubilee's view since (in my version) she was the good friend of both parties involved. I hope you all enjoy and will leave wonderful reviews in return.**

"It's over," the voice behind me whispered in disbelief, "it's all over."

I couldn't believe what he was telling me. I didn't want to believe it as I turned to stare at the man behind me. Shock rippled through my body in a wave that nearly left me catatonic. It couldn't be over, could it?

"No," I whispered back to him with a sharp shake of my head. "No."

Tears threatened to slip unnoticed behind my brown-near-black eyes as they surveyed the room. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed at all accept the slowly browning pool of cherry apple blood as it dried unhurried in the evening night air.

"It's time to go kid," Logan said as we both starred dejectedly down at the floor.

I didn't listen to him as I continued to stand rigid in my place. This room that had once held so many memories for me now held only the faint stench of death and of cigarette smoke. A lingering sign of what happens when a love so pure and innocent gets destroyed by the power and ambition of man.

"Come on yellow it's time to go before the rest of the mob squad comes back a knockin' on our door," Logan called out to me, yet I was still unable to move from my position.

"It can't be over," I mumbled out again as I bent down towards the drying puddle of blood. "He wouldn't have gone down without a fight; he never goes down without a fight."

"Maybe," Logan began as he too kneeled down beside me as I allowed the tips of my fingers to graze over the still wet, sticky blood. "Maybe he didn't want to fight for this one kid." I let out a rugged sigh at that as I waited for him to continue his explanation. "I know if it was me I wouldn't want to fight for it all either."

"Then where are they Logan?" I asked near hysterics as I continued to scrape the bloody surface of the floor.

"I…I don't know kid," He answered honestly with a shake of his long mane.

I didn't say anything after that. There really wasn't anything left to say as I allowed my fingers to brush gently over the only thing that connected my dear friends to this world or to any world for that matter. The stark white of the playing cards contrasted beautifully against their blood splattered edges, A King of Hearts that lay symbolically next to his Queen spoke more than anything I could ever say about the devilish pair.

A grin twitched at the side of my mouth as I pulled the pair of cards out from underneath their bloody depths. The yellow gloves I wore became stained with the blood of my friends-my teachers as I looked hopefully at them.

"No Logan," I whispered harshly with another shake of my head as I felt the blood run down my gloves and eventually down my jacket sleeves, the King and Queen of Hearts crumbling in my grip. "It's not over yet, this is all just the beginning."

"How do you know?" He asked me as he grabbed me up by my yellow-clad arm. My hand never lost their tight grip on the two playing cards.

"Because," I said with a smile as large as the state of California, "they volunteered."

**A/N: BANG! Done! Hope ya'll liked it. Sorry it was so super short. But I am not one to linger on things of this nature. Makes you wonder though…if they never found the bodies of Rogue and Gambit what happened to them???? Good question. Not going to answer it unless I get a million reviews. Oh by the way, it's done by pressing that little green button below this annoying authors note. Have a nice day.**


	8. Epilogue

**A/N: Fiiinnneeee…..I give in! Here's another chapter so ya'll leave me alone…lol **

**(Also, I have a sneaking feeling that aiRo25writes has something to do with all of my reviews…hmm…) **

**Epilogue**

**15 years later…**

Its early fall in Westchester, New York. The war against Apocalypse and humanity had finally come to a close nearly ten years prior and peace among humans and mutants had last been achieved. The cities are slowly being rebuilt and people are once again occupying the once desolate country of The United States. Mutants and Humans are doing so without fear and prejudice for the first time.

All that is, except for the handsomely dressed couple that now stands sadly against one another, their three children standing beside them in silent contemplation. They are staring at the graves of the lost souls who fought bravely for this country, for mutants and humans alike. They are staring at their graves.

Their children say nothing as they watch their mother's brilliant green eyes mist over with tears and their father's strong ageing face set hard into an impervious frown. They know the story; have heard it a million times before in their public history classes back home. They know who their parents are; they know what they have done. There mother is a hero to her people for sacrificing herself for the good of man kind, their father is a traitor and a coward who sold his people out for the love of a woman.

Yes, they've heard that story a million times before; have read it in texts books written by historians for nearly ten years now. It is the scarlet letter that they now bare openly with the world; it's their Yellow Star of David. It is the burden that will forever stay within their family even after death.

The man and the woman take a step back as they finally turn to face the family they left behind to start their own. They don't know they're here; they have no idea that the three siblings joining their school today are the sons and daughters of people they have long thought were dead and buried.

"Momma," the oldest of the children cry out.

"Yes Henry?" she asks her oldest son, he's only nine, named after his uncle who died during the beginning of the war. He looks identical to his father.

"Do they know?" He questions and she knows what he's asking. _Do they know who we are? Will they hate us like everyone else does back at home? Will we have to move again because of the hatred that will eventually pour into our home? _

"No Henry," she replies sadly to him.

"Oh."

They grow silent again as she grasps her oldest boy's hand. The other reflectively goes to rest on top of her swollen belly. She's eight months along with their fourth; a girl Hank McCoy had assured them during his last visit was completely healthy. The man behind her picks up their current youngest, their first girl-Mercy, she has more of her grandmother and uncle on her mother's side than any of the other children.

Their second son and second child Jean-Luc tags along behind the rest, lingering only a moment in front of the graves of people he had only heard of in whispered tales told by his mother before bed. He shivers at the honor of being one of the few who ever would stand before these great men and women. He tightens the hold on his long coat trying to cover his demonic looking appearance. He's a pure mixture of both sides of the family.

The family of five, mutants with obvious mutant abilities turns quietly like thieves into the waiting mansion that will forever change the course of history and the stories in which have been written and passed down.

It is like the red sea as people part to allow them through the front foyer. The air grows still as they stop in front of the future of America. No one breathes as they stare face to face with one another for the first time in fifteen years.

"Hello," The woman speaks first her grip on her child tightening as she drawls him closer to her body.

No one on the other side speaks at first. All are far to stunned to say anything. The ghosts of their pasts were never supposed to walk this Earth again. Yet here they stand, older and more mature with a family all on there own. It was all just too improbable.

"It can't be…" Storm trails off as she steps forward a hand out stretched as if it is all but a dream. A dream she has had countless times before. Her lovers blue arm snakes over her own mocha covered one and holds her back. This was no time to fall apart; this was no time to forget and to forgive, not if this was indeed real.

"Bonjour Stormy, Raven" Gambit the traitor, Death the mutant and human murder spoke with his thick New Orleans tongue.

"I knew it!" A loud yell was heard to everyone's right. They turn to see a very grown up version of Jubilee who is still dressed thoroughly in bright yellow. She's on the stairs, a smile as long as California spreads across her face as she rushes down the stairs to meet the lost hero's of the past.

"I just knew it!" She says again taking the pair into a large hug. "I told you they weren't dead."

No one says anything again as the couple smiles coyly down at their short yellow comrade. No, they weren't dead yet.

"Mein Gott, es kann nicht sein!" The familiar German voice of Kurt Wagner speaks as he appears in a cloud of sulfur just in front of his mother.

"Momma! Papa!" The youngest child, Mercy cries out in excitement.

"Oui petite?" Gambit asks his daughter as she wiggles in his grasp.

"Papa, he looks just like moi!" Mercy giggles out as her yellow eyes blink furiously in their reptilian kind of way.

"Oui petite dat be because _Monsuier Wagner be ya _mère's frère?" Remy LeBeau spoke to his daughter never taking his eyes off of the X-Men, the last hope for America and its people.

"He's our oncle?" Jean-Luc asked with a questioning look. His face seemed to mimic his father's trademark bad boy appeal to a fault.

"_Yes_," Jean-Luc's mother's hissed out to him with a look that screamed behave.

"Then that I suppose would make me your Grandmother," Raven's thick voice spoke out as she moved from behind Storm, her yellow eyes never leaving her daughters face.

"Momma!" Mercy cried out again in glee. Never had the youngest LeBeau ever seen so many people who shared similar features to her own before. Never had any of the LeBeau children seen so many obvious mutants before.

"What the hell is goin' on stripes?" Logan asked as he stood almost saddened by the fact that she stood before him alive and well. The woman looked from the man she had always respected and clamed as her unofficial father figure to her husband. He inclined his head and gave her a reassuring smile. She didn't take her eyes off him as she let out a shuddered breath before continuing.

"We're here to enroll our children into Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Storm received our applications months ago," she began with a coy smile as she let her eyes move from her husbands to the gruff X-Man. All eyes seemed to have turned towards Storm as the words left the still young woman's lips.

"I had no idea…I thought it was a relative from the Thieves Guild you have so many cousins Remy…," she trailed off as she tried to gather her thoughts at what this all meant.

"That's not what I meant and you God Damn well know it!" He yelled out and the couple before him raised their eyes at the sudden outburst.

"I won't have you talkin' like that in front of my children Logan," the woman said firmly as she took a step away from her son Henri.

"Then just tell us-me Rogue what happened," he pleaded with Rogue taking a step towards her as well. At this distance all Logan had to do was just reach out not even a hair's breath away and he could touch her, feel her warmth against his skin, her all to familiar smell fill his nostrils in that aroma that was entirely her own.

"When I took that mission Logan, I told you I wouldn't be coming back," she stopped and let a small laugh escape her lips, "I never thought in a million years when I said I wouldn't be back that I meant I was going to run off with one of Apocalypses' Horsemen and marry the son of a gun."

Her eyes shifted to look at said Horseman and a sparkle seemed to shimmer across her green eyes as she took him in. In that moment Logan saw what he had been missing his entire life. A love shared by two people that could never be broken.

"I got us the hell out of dodge. Had to shoot the bastard a few times to make it look legit and well it just felt good to shoot him to tell you the truth," she stopped again another laugh escaping her before she continued, "flew us to New Orleans that night and never looked back. Got married right after ya'll defeated Apocalypse and had Henri here not nine months later."

"That's it huh?" Logan asked with his trademark eyebrow.

"You didn't even invite me to your wedding!" Jubilee squealed in mock hurt as she clung tightly to her heart.

"Well petite ya shouldn't be one ta talk. Remy and Chere here heard ya tied da knot not to long ago ya self. And ta beau-frère no doubt," Gambit said with his characteristic smile.

"But why?" A voice from the back of the crowd that had gathered asked.

Rogue's eyes met the all too familiar red lenses of her past lover. His hair hung low past his ears and his battle uniform seemed to have finally been replaced with his familiar slacks and button up shirt. She could feel the hurt radiating off of his body in waves as they crashed unceremoniously upon her being. Her heart's instinct was to lurch outwards towards his pain. But by force of will to comfort her long time friend she merely held her once abrasive tongue.

"Why?" A bubbly Jubilee asked as she tugged on one Mercy's pig tales "because they volunteered of course!"

**A/N: Bada-Bing Bada-Boom! I wrote this as fast as I could and didn't even bother going over it or sending it to a beta! So there….*pants from exertion like a dog on a hot Texas summer day* REVIEW! Tell me what ya think! **


End file.
